The Travels of Marco Polo
Chapter 274 : Cf. _k.u.mudana_, given by the Sanskrit-Chinese vocabulary found in j.a.pan (Max MuLLE

Cf. _k.u.mudana_, given by the Sanskrit-Chinese vocabulary found in j.a.pan (Max MuLLER, _Buddhist Texts from j.a.pan_, in _Anecdota Oxoniensia_, Aryan Series, t. I., part I., p. 9), and the _Khumdan_ and _Khumadan_ of Theophylactus. (See TOMASCHEK, in _Wiener Z.M._, t. III., p. 105; Marquart, _Eransahr_, pp. 316-7; _Osteuropaische und Ostasiatische Streifzuge_, pp. 89-90.) (PELLIOT.)

XLI., p. 29 n. The vocabulary _Hwei Hwei_ (Mahomedan) of the College of Interpreters at Peking transcribes King chao from the Persian Kin-chang, a name it gives to the Shen-si province. King chao was called Ngan-si fu in 1277. (DEVeRIA, _Epigraphie_, p. 9.) Ken jan comes from Kin-chang = King-chao = Si-ngan fu.

Prof. Pelliot writes, _Bul. Ecole franc. Ext. Orient_, IV., July-Sept., 1904, p. 29: "Cette note de M. Cordier n'est pas exacte. Sous les Song, puis sous les Mongols jusqu'en 1277, Si-ngan fou fut appele King-tchao fou. Le vocabulaire _houei-houei_ ne transcrit pas 'King-tchao du persan kin-tchang,' mais, comme les Persans appelaient alors Si-ngan fou Kindjanfou (le Kenjanfu de Marco Polo), cette forme _persane_ est a son tour transcrite phonetiquement en chinois Kin-tchang fou, sans que les caracteres choisis jouent la aucun role semantique; Kin-tchang fou n'existe pas dans la geographie chinoise. Quant a l'origine de la forme persane, il est possible, mais non par sur, que ce soit King-tchao fou. La forme 'Quen-zan-fou,' qu'un ecolier chinois du Chen Si fournit a M. von Richthofen comme le nom de Si-ngan fou au temps des Yuan, doit avoir ete fautivement recueillie. Il me parait impossible qu'un Chinois d'une province quelconque p.r.o.nonce _zan_ le caractere [Chinese] _tchao_."

XLI., p. 29 n. A clause in the edict also orders the _foreign bonzes of Ta T'sin_ and _Mubupa_ (Christian and _Mobed_ or Magian) _to return to secular life_.

_Mubupa_ has no doubt been derived by the etymology _mobed_, but it is faulty; it should be _Muhupa_. (PELLIOT, _Bul. Ecole franc. Ext. Orient_, IV., July-Sept., 1904, p. 771.) Pelliot writes to me that there is now no doubt that it is derived from _mu-lu hien_ and that it must be understood as the "[religion of] the Celestial G.o.d of the Magi."

XLIII., p. 32.

"The _chien-tao_, or 'pillar road,' mentioned, should be _chan-tao_, or 'scaffolding road.' The picture facing p. 50 shows how the shoring up or scaffolding is effected. The word _chan_ is still in common use all over the Empire, and in 1267 Kublai ordered this identical road ('Sz Ch'wan _chan-tao_') to be repaired. There are many such roads in Sz Ch'wan besides the original one from Han-chung-Fu." (E.H. PARKER, _As. Quart.

Rev._, Jan., 1904, p. 144.)

XLIV., p. 36. SINDAFU (Ch'eng tu fu).--Through the midst of this great city runs a large river.... It is a good half-mile wide....

"It is probable that in the thirteenth century, when Marco Polo was on his travels, the 'great river a good half-mile wide,' flowing past Chengtu, was the princ.i.p.al stream; but in the present day that channel is insignificant in comparison to the one which pa.s.ses by Ta Hsien, Yung-Chia Chong, and Hsin-Chin Hsien. Of course, these channels are stopped up or opened as occasion requires. As a general rule, they follow such contour lines as will allow gravitation to conduct the water to levels as high as is possible, and when it is desired to raise it higher than it will naturally flow, chain-pumps and enormous undershot water-wheels of bamboo are freely employed. Water-power is used for driving mills through the medium of wheels, undershot or overshot, or turbines, as the local circ.u.mstances may demand." (R. Logan JACK, _Back Blocks_, p. 55.)

XLIV., p. 36.

SINDAFU.

"The story of the 'three Kings' of Sindafu is probably in this wise: For nearly a century the Wu family (Wu Kiai, Wu Lin, and Wu Hi) had ruled as semi-independent Sung or 'Manzi' Viceroys of Sz Ch'wan, but in 1206 the last-named, who had fought bravely for the Sung (Manzi) Dynasty against the northern Dynasty of the Nuchen Tartars (successors to Cathay), surrendered to this same Kin or Golden Dynasty of Nuchens or Early Manchus, and was made King of Shuh (Sz Ch'wan). In 1236, Ogdai's son, K'wei-t'eng, effected the partial conquest of Shuh, entering the capital, Ch'eng-tu Fu (Sindafu), towards the close of the same year. But in 1259 Mangu in person had to go over part of the same ground again. He proceeded up the rapids, and in the seventh moon attacked Ch'ung K'ing, but about a fortnight later he died at a place called Tiao-yu Shan, apparently near the Tiao-yu Ch'eng of my map (p. 175 of _Up the Yangtsze_, 1881), where I was myself in the year 1881. Colonel Yule's suggestion that Marco's allusion is to the tripart.i.te Empire of China 1000 years previously is surely wide of the mark. The 'three brothers' were probably Kiai, Lin, and T'ing, and Wu Hi was the son of Wu T'ing. An account of Wu Kiai is given in Mayers' _Chinese Reader's Manual_." (E.H. PARKER, _As. Quart. Rev._, Jan., 1904, pp. 144-5.)

Cf. MAYERS, No. 865, p. 259, and GILES, _Biog. Dict._, No. 2324, p. 880.

XLIV., p. 38.

SINDAFU.

Tch'eng Tu was the capital of the Kingdom of Shu. The first Shu Dynasty was the Minor Han Dynasty which lasted from A.D. 221 to A.D. 263; this Shu Dynasty was one of the Three Kingdoms (_San Kwo chi_); the two others being Wei (A.D. 220-264) reigning at Lo Yang, and Wu (A.D. 222-277) reigning at Kien Kang (Nan King). The second was the Ts'ien Shu Dynasty, founded in 907 by w.a.n.g Kien, governor of Sze Chw'an since 891; it lasted till 925, when it submitted to the Hau T'ang; in 933 the Hau T'ang were compelled to grant the t.i.tle of King of Shu (Hau Shu) to Mong Chi-siang, governor of Sze Chw'an, who was succeeded by Mong Ch'ang, dethroned in 965; the capital was also Ch'eng Tu under these two dynasties.

TIBET.

XLV., p. 44. No man of that country would on any consideration take to wife a girl who was a maid; for they say a wife is nothing worth unless she has been used to consort with men. And their custom is this, that when travellers come that way, the old women of the place get ready, and take their unmarried daughters or other girls related to them, and go to the strangers who are pa.s.sing, and make over the young women to whomsoever will accept them; and the travellers take them accordingly and do their pleasure; after which the girls are restored to the old women who brought them....

Speaking of the Sifan village of Po Lo and the account given by Marco Polo of the customs of these people, M.R. Logan JACK (_Back Blocks_, 1904, pp.

145-6) writes: "I freely admit that the good looks and modest bearing of the girls were the chief merits of the performance in my eyes. Had the _danseuses_ been scrubbed and well dressed, they would have been a presentable body of _debutantes_ in any European ballroom. One of our party, frivolously disposed, asked a girl (through an interpreter) if she would marry him and go to his country. The reply, 'I do not know you, sir,' was all that propriety could have demanded in the best society, and worthy of a pupil 'finished' at Miss Pinkerton's celebrated establishment.... Judging from our experience, no idea of hospitalities of the kind [Marco's experience] was in the people's minds."

XLV., p. 45. Speaking of the people of Tibet, Polo says: "They are very poorly clad, for their clothes are only of the skins of beasts, and of canvas, and of buckram."

Add to the note, I., p. 48, n. 5:--

"Au XIV'e siecle, le bougran [buckram] etait une espece de tissu de lin: le meilleur se fabriquait en Armenie et dans le royaume de Melibar, s'il faut s'en rapporter a Marco Polo, qui nous apprend que les habitants du Thibet, qu'il signale comme pauvrement vetus, l'etaient de canevas et de bougran, et que cette derniere etoffe se fabriquait aussi dans la province d'Abasce. Il en venait egalement de l'ile de Chypre. Sorti des manufactures d'Espagne ou importe dans le royaume, a partir de 1442, date d'une ordonnance royale publiee par le P. Saez, le bougran le plus fin payait soixante-dix maravedis de droits, sans distinction de couleur"

(FRANCISQUE-MICHEL, _Recherches sur le commerce, la fabrication et l'usage des etoffes de soie, d'or et d'argent_.... II., 1854, pp. 33-4). Pa.s.sage mentioned by Dr. Laufer.

XLV., pp. 46 n., 49 seq.

Referring to Dr. E. Bretschneider, Prof. E.H. Parker gives the following notes in the _Asiatic Quart. Review_, Jan., 1904, p. 131: "In 1251 Ho-erh-t'ai was appointed to the command of the Mongol and Chinese forces advancing on Tibet (T'u-fan). [In my copy of the _Yuan s.h.i.+_ there is no entry under the year 1254 such as that mentioned by Bretschneider; it may, however, have been taken by Palladius from some other chapter.] In 1268 Mang-ku-tai was ordered to invade the Si-fan (outer Tibet) and _Kien-tu_ [Marco's Caindu] with 6000 men. Bretschneider, however, omits Kien-tu, and also omits to state that in 1264 eighteen Si-fan clans were placed under the superintendence of the _an-fu-sz_ (governor) of An-si Chou, and that in 1265 a reward was given to the troops of the decachiliarch Hw.a.n.g-li-t'a-rh for their services against the T'u fan, with another reward to the troops under Prince Ye-suh-pu-hwa for their successes against the Si-fan. Also that in 1267 the Si-fan chieftains were encouraged to submit to Mongol power, in consequence of which A-nu-pan-ti-ko was made Governor-General of Ho-wu and other regions near it. Bretschneider's next item after the doubtful one of 1274 is in 1275, as given by Cordier, but he omits to state that in 1272 Mang-ku-tai's eighteen clans and other T'u-fan troops were ordered in hot haste to attack Sin-an Chou, belonging to the Kien-tu prefecture; and that a post-station called Ning-ho Yih was established on the T'u-fan and Si-Ch'wan [= Sz Ch'wan] frontier. In 1275 a number of Princes, including Chi-pi T'ie-mu-r, and Mang-u-la, Prince of An-si, were sent to join the Prince of Si-p'ing [Kublai's son] Ao-lu-ch'ih in his expedition against the Tu-fau. In 1276 all Si-fan bonzes (lamas) were forbidden to carry arms, and the Tu-fan city of Hata was turned into Ning-yuan Fu [as it now exists]; garrisons and civil authorities were placed in Kien-tu and Lo-lo-sz [the Lolo country]. In 1277 a Customs station was established at Tiao-men and Li-Chou [Ts'ing-k'i Hien in Ya-chou Fu] for the purposes of Tu-fan trade. In 1280 more Mongol troops were sent to the Li Chou region, and a special officer was appointed for T'u-fan [Tibetan] affairs at the capital. In 1283 a high official was ordered to print the official doc.u.ments connected with the _suan-wei-sz_ [governors.h.i.+p] of T'u-fan. In 1288 six provinces, including those of Sz Chw'an and An-si, were ordered to contribute financial a.s.sistance to the _suan-wei-sh_ [governor] of U-sz-tsang [the indigenous name of Tibet proper]. Every year or two after this, right up to 1352, there are entries in the Mongol Annals amply proving that the conquest of Tibet under the Mongols was not only complete, but fully narrated; however, there is no particular object in carrying the subject here beyond the date of Marco's departure from China. There are many mentions of Kien-tu (which name dates from the Sung Dynasty) in the _Yuan-sh_; it is the Kien-ch'ang Valley of to-day, with capital at Ning-yuan, as clearly marked on Bretschneider's Map. Baber's suggestion of the _Chan-tui_ tribe of Tibetans is quite obsolete, although Baber was one of the first to explore the region in person. A petty tribe like the _Chan-tui_ could never have given name to _Caindu_; besides, both initials and finals are impossible, and the _Chan-tui_ have never lived there. I have myself met Si-fan chiefs at Peking; they may be described roughly as Tibetans _not under_ the Tibetan Government. The T'u-fan, T'u-po, or Tubot, were the Tibetans _under Tibetan rule_, and they are now usually styled 'Si-tsang' by the Chinese. Yaci [Ya-ch'ih, Ya-ch'] is frequently mentioned in the _Yuan-sh_, and the whole of Deveria's quotation given by Cordier on p. 72 appears there [chap.

121, p. 5], besides a great deal more to the point, without any necessity for consulting the _Lei pien_. Cowries, under the name of _pa-tsz_, are mentioned in both Mongol and Ming history as being in use for money in Siam and Yung-ch'ang [Vociam]. The porcelain coins which, as M. Cordier quotes from me on p. 74, I myself saw current in the Shan States or Siam about ten years ago, were of white China, with a blue figure, and about the size of a Keating's cough lozenge, but thicker. As neither form of the character _pa_ appears in any dictionary, it is probably a foreign word only locally understood. Regarding the origin of the name Yung-ch'ang, the discussions upon p. 105 are no longer necessary; in the eleventh moon of 1272 [say about January 1, 1273] Kublai 'presented the name Yung-ch'ang to the new city built by Prince Chi-pi T'ie-mu-r.'"

XLVI., p. 49. They have also in this country [Tibet] plenty of fine woollens and other stuffs, and many kinds of spices are produced there which are never seen in our country.

Dr. Laufer draws my attention to the fact that this translation does not give exactly the sense of the French text, which runs thus:

"Et encore voz di qe en ceste provence a gianbelot [camelot] a.s.sez et autres dras d'or et de soie, et hi naist maintes especes qe unques ne furent veue en nostre pas." (_Ed. Soc. de Geog._, Chap, cxvi., p. 128.)

In the Latin text (Ibid., p. 398), we have:

"In ista provincia sunt giambelloti satis et alii panni de sirico et auro; et ibi nasc.u.n.tur multae species quae nunquam fuerunt visae in nostris contractis."

Francisque-Michel (_Recherches_, II., p. 44) says: "Les Tartares fabriquaient aussi a Aias de tres-beaux camelots de poil de chameau, que l'on expediait pour divers pays, et Marco Polo nous apprend que cette denree etait fort abondante dans le Thibet. Au XV'e siecle, il en venait de l'ile de Chypre."

XLVII., pp. 50, 52,

WILD OXEN CALLED _BEYAMINI_.

Dr. Laufer writes to me: "Yule correctly identifies the 'wild oxen' of Tibet with the gayal (_Bos gavaeus_), but I do not believe that his explanation of the word _beyamini_ (from an artificially constructed _buemini_ = Bohemian) can be upheld. Polo states expressly that these wild oxen are called _beyamini_ (scil. by the natives), and evidently alludes to a native Tibetan term. The gayal is styled in Tibetan _ba-men_ (or _ba-man_), derived from _ba_ ('cow'), a diminutive form of which is _beu_.

Marco Polo appears to have heard some dialectic form of this word like _beu-men_ or _beu-min_."

XLVIII., p. 70.

KIUNG TU AND KIEN TU.

Kiung tu or Kiang tu is Caindu in Sze-Ch'wan; Kien tu is in Yun Nan. Cf.

PELLIOT, _Bul. Ecole franc. Ext. Orient_, July-Sept, 1904, p. 771. Caindu or Ning Yuan was, under the Mongols, a dependency of Yun Nan, not of Sze Ch'wan. (PELLIOT.)

XLVIII., p. 72. The name _Karajang_. "The first element was the Mongol or Turki _Kara_.... Among the inhabitants of this country some are black, and others are white; these latter are called by the Mongols _Chaghan-Jang_ ('White Jang'). Jang has not been explained; but probably it may have been a Tibetan term adopted by the Mongols, and the colours may have applied to their clothing."

Dr. Berthold Laufer, of Chicago, has a note on the subject in the _Journal of the Royal Asiatic Soc._, Oct., 1915, pp. 781-4: "M. Pelliot (_Bul.

Ecole franc. Ext. Orient._, IV., 1904, p. 159) proposed to regard the unexplained name _Jang_ as the Mongol transcription of _Ts'uan_, the ancient Chinese designation of the Lo-lo, taken from the family name of one of the chiefs of the latter; he gave his opinion, however, merely as an hypothesis which should await confirmation. I now believe that Yule was correct in his conception, and that, in accordance with his suggestion, _Jang_ indeed represents the phonetically exact transcription of a Tibetan proper name. This is the Tibetan _a Jan_ or _a Jans_ (the prefixed letter _a_ and the optional affix _-s_ being silent, hence p.r.o.nounced _Jang_ or _Djang_), of which the following precise definition is given in the _Dictionnaire tibetain-latin francais par les Missionnaires Catholiques du Tibet_ (p. 351): 'Tribus et regionis nomen in N.W. provinciae Sinarum Yun-nan, cuius urbs princ.i.p.alis est Sa-t'am seu Ly-kiang fou. Tribus vocatur Mosso a Sinensibus et Nas.h.i.+ ab ipsismet incolis.' In fact, as here stated, _Ja'n_ or _Jang_ is the Tibetan designation of the Moso and the territory inhabited by them, the capital of which is Li-kiang-fu. This name is found also in Tibetan literature...."

XLVIII., p. 74, n. 2. One thousand Uighur families (_nou_) had been transferred to Karajang in 1285. (_Yuan s.h.i.+_, ch. 13, 8_v_, quoted by PELLIOT.)

L., pp. 85-6. Zardandan. "The country is wild and hard of access, full of great woods and mountains which 'tis impossible to pa.s.s, the air in summer is so impure and bad; and any foreigners attempting it would die for certain."

"An even more formidable danger was the resolution of our 'permanent' (as distinguished from 'local') soldiers and mafus, of which we were now apprised, to desert us in a body, as they declined to face the malaria of the Lu-Kiang Ba, or Salwen Valley. We had, of course, read in Gill's book of this difficulty, but as we approached the Salwen we had concluded that the scare had been forgotten. We found, to our chagrin, that the dreaded 'Fever Valley' had lost none of its terrors. The valley had a bad name in Marco Polo's day, in the thirteenth century, and its reputation has clung to it ever since, with all the tenacity of Chinese traditions. The Chinaman of the district crosses the valley daily without fear, but the Chinaman from a distance _knows_ that he will either die or his wife will prove unfaithful. If he is compelled to go, the usual course is to write to his wife and tell her that she is free to look out for another husband.

Having made up his mind that he will die, I have no doubt that he often dies through sheer funk." (R. Logan JACK, _Back Blocks of China_, 1904, p.

205.)

L., pp. 84, 89.

CONCERNING THE PROVINCE OF ZARDANDAN.

We read in Huber's paper already mentioned (_Bul. Ecole Ext. Orient_, Oct.-Dec., 1909, p. 665): "The second month of the twelfth year (1275), Ho T'ien-tsio, governor of the Kien Ning District, sent the following information: 'A-kouo of the Zerdandan tribe, knows three roads to enter Burma, one by T'ien pu ma, another by the P'iao tien, and the third by the very country of A-kouo; the three roads meet at the 'City of the Head of the River' [Kaung si] in Burma." A-kouo, named elsewhere A-ho, lived at Kan-ngai. According to Huber, the Zardandan road is the actual caravan road to Bhamo on the left of the Nam Ti and Ta Ping; the second route would be by the Tien ma pa.s.s and Nam hkam, the P'iao tien route is the road on the right bank of the Nam Ti and the Ta Ping leading to Bhamo via San Ta and Man Waing.

The _Po Yi_ and _Ho Ni_ tribes are mentioned in the _Yuan s.h.i.+_, s.a. 1278.

(PELLIOT.)